The Iowa State Fair’s iconic butter cow will make a trip to the nation’s capital next year.
Well, 600 pounds of Iowa butter will make the journey, at least. But then it will be sculpted from scratch in an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrating state fairs around the country.
Butter artist Sarah Pratt has sculpted the Iowa State Fair staple since 2006, after apprenticing under former sculptor Nora “Duffy” Lyon for 15 years. She’ll travel to Washington, D.C. with her family to create the cow next summer, where it will be on display for a year at “The State Fair and American Craft” exhibit in the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.
“I was already excited and bowled away by the fact that they would be interested in the craft, the art that I do, but also in literally displaying a piece, so that was really exciting,” she said.
Pratt has been communicating with the museum about the exhibit for over a year. Initially, the plan was to transport the sculpture to D.C. after the 2025 fair ended in order to continue the tradition of recycling the butter to create the next rendition, but Pratt said there were concerns about how to do so without damaging the piece in transit. The exhibit dates — Aug. 22, 2025 to Aug. 23, 2026 — will also almost certainly overlap with the 2026 Iowa State Fair. And so the decision was made to transport fresh Iowa butter to the nation’s capital so the cow could be two places at once.